Luke Skarth-Hayley

Writer, Designer, Creative Technologist

Droneconomicon

Screenshot of Droneconomicon

A stealth game prototype in the vein of Thief: The Dark Project and other first-person stealth games, built using Unreal Engine and the Blueprints visual scripting language. You are visible in light sources, and not in the darkness. Your objective is to collect "loot" and keys as you avoid various AI drones (with multiple behaviours) and try to get to the next area, eventually making your way to your objective: steal the Zuckerberg Diamond.

The enemy models are quite primitive as befits a prototype for a university project, but each enemy is distinct with the behaviours including track on visibility, follow you when you aren't looking, and detect if you are making noise (i.e. footsteps). There are also various environmental hazards, along with a gating mechanic where you have to collect a mix of keys and loot to progress into further areas.

In addition, I designed all the sounds present in the game and a faked dynamic soundtrack with layers added over time from ambient hum to tense electronica as the final area is entered.

In retrospect (and having subsequently taught on the labs related to the coursework this emerged from!) I can see plenty of opportunities for improvement (beyond obvious presentational ones), such as layering the visibility into more than just a binary state, creating more sophisticated AI behaviours, and working on the environment and level design to create something with a more coherent sense of both progression and narrative coherence.

Two Part Video Playthrough:

↑ To Top